Bottle Cleaning

What is the best way to clean and remove labels from bottles? I was thinking about just using liquid dish soap and a bottle brush and sanitizing before i bottle, but i am wondering if the liquid dish soap would leave residue on the bottle itself. Will something like oxyclean be better? Or is there something else that would work?

Easiest and best way...soak them in hot water for at least an hour (I have soaked mine over night). After the soak, you should be able to peel the labels right off. If it leaves glue behind, you can use a sponge with a scrubbing side to scrub it off. If that doesn't work you can re-soak and try again or you can just use a razor blade to scrap it off.

Sam Adams bottles peeled right off and the glue came off with a quick scrub of the sponge. I had to use a razor blade to scrape the glue off the Magic Hat bottles and then use the sponge to get the rest off

Soak in OxyClean over night. The labels will be laying in the bottom of the bucket.

I haven't needed to clean bottles in a long time but Oxy or PBW always worked well for me. Truth be told just having them soak in virtually anything will do the job and then using a Scotch Brite pad will finish it.
I aways found it ironic that when I wanted to get the labels off it was more difficult than when I could care less. Putting some beers in a bucket of ice water to take to the beach always had the labels coming off without effort.

+1 with the oxyclean. i used to let them sit overnight in a bucket and scrub a little. but now it takes 1 hour with a bucket of water and 3 scoops of oxy. i can do two batches if i keep the water in the bucket. haven't tried more but Oxyclean is THE best way i have found!!!!!!!!!

+1 Oxyclean. Some labels will just fall off but some won't. One of my local craft breweries puts their labels on with some SUPER DOOPER cement.



Even after soaking you STILL have to scrape those damn labels off. They are nice labels but man what a PIA.

After reading a bunch of post here. I agree wuth the Oxyclean. I put some bottles in the sink with Oxyclean. After about two hours most of the labels were off the bottles and only a few had to be pulled off and cleaned up.


Listen to the advice from this forum........ lots of great tips.

I have a nice course copper wire like scrub sponge that looks like a very coarse steel wool. Soak the bottles in hot water and dish soap. The labels do not stand a chance. Rinse the hell out of them. Starsan the crap out of them right before bottling

as you can tell there is no easy way to do it. they are all tedious tasks, but save money in doing so. One thing I would like to add is that beers with little or no sediment are the easiest to clean. getting the labels off is a different story. that being said, lagers such as sam adams boston and yuengling carry no sediment at all, so the dishwasher is fine. beers like blue moon and hoegaarden are the absolute worst bottles to use. keep that in mind

when you start drinking your beer make sure you rinse out the bottle right away. it'll save you work later on.

soak in hot water and if there is glue still on use a plastic pan scraper to scrape otherwise oxyclean for more than an hour less than that was not much difference between hot water and one with oxyclean within an hour.

For 18 months or so I haven't cleaned any commercial bottles because I woke up one day and decided I would never remove another label. So I buy a lot of bottles but I do reuse hombrew bottles that I open at home. My procedure is as follows:

1. After pouring or at the very least before bed I thoroughly rinse with water and throw them in a paper grocery bag on the back porch until I have a lot of them.

2. A few minutes soak in PBW or similar (I've been using some stuff I won in competitions which is fine, oxy clean + metasilicate is fine, just don't use straight oxy clean as it is prone to leave mineral deposits).

3. Rinse as always with plenty of fresh water that is hotter than the cleaning water (which was pretty warm itself).

4.....

5. Profit

Sam Adams are the easiest to get the labels off. guinness draught bottles are just a plastic covering that you can cut off. getting the widget out is a little tricky but i have found that using the tip of a knife to widdle them out does work. and they are a good bottle.

the hardest, i have found, is new belgium (fat tire, 32below, etc.)

Hockeyhunter99 said:

the hardest, i have found, is new belgium

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Well crap, at the moment I'm soaking 6 of those in just hot water. We'll see.

soak in OXY and hot water...any that do not come off with that scrape with a knife, and any residual glue or paper use a scotch brite pad. rinse and then a soak in STARSAN to avoid the scale that oxy leaves on the bottles as it drys. Rinse...allow to dry...put away until time to use.
Cleaning the inside is different...scrub with a brush...visually inspect....scrub...visually inspect. keep going until you are absolutely sure it is 100% clean. Occasionally I will just toss one in the trash if it is too grungy.

whutever said:

Well crap, at the moment I'm soaking 6 of those in just hot water. We'll see.

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Easiest bottles I have cleaned. Labels came right off

hot water + bit of dish washer usually works for me - 30-60min does the job. Have yet to meet the label who did not fall off during this time.

If you can buy it in your area ( some folks claim they cannot ), go to Lowe's or Home Depot and get some TSP. ( It's near the paint thinner in my location )

1/4 cup in 5 gals hot water - 20 min soak, labels fall off. I can usually get 12 bottles to a bucket totally immersed, and do three rounds with one batch.

If you find a way to get the labels off Heineken bottles, let me know. I like the stubby bottles as they fit the top rack of the dishwasher which I use in place of a bottle tree. I can't get quite enough tall bottles on the bottom rack for a full batch and if I use the top rack for all the tall bottles left, it sticks out too far to use the open door for catching spills when bottling. The stubby ones let me put a few more bottles in there "just in case I need a few more" and still have room for the bottling.

When I accumulate enough bottles that SWMBO starts getting fidgety, I fill up a big rubbermaid container with water and a liberal amount of bleach. Very liberal. I use luke warm water because the bottles are usually in there a couple days until I have time. Then just rinse and wash off the glue. Most of the glue at that point is dissolved and a wipe under the faucet with a dish rag is enough. The bleach will also nuke anything growing in there because the original drinker didn't rinse.

Whatever cleaner you use, just make sure all bottles are completely submerged and filled with water/cleaning solution.

Don't use Hieneken bottles. Green doesn't work as well as brown for protection

flabyboy said:

Easiest bottles I have cleaned. Labels came right off

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Yup, they came right off with just hot water after an hour soak. Then used a pad to remove the remaining glue.

Hieneken lables are a pain to get off but they come off in one piece once you get started. Try drinking a sierra nevada beer as the bottles are the same shape, they have paper lables and are brown.

I know we are now on page 3, and you received your answer, but here is something I didn't read in the 3 pages and works great for me. I do also use HOT HOT water and oxyclean for soaking, any labels that don't just come off on their own, I peel off. Then to get the glue off the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is easy to use and quick...

Oxyclean.